You withdrew your hand with more force than you intended and you saw his surprised expression.

What? Am I hurting?

"I'm really hungry and I think you're right, I should go home now." You abandoned the thought of editing that column and hastened out of the office. "Go home soon ok!" You threw a goodbye at the gaping Chanyeol.

___________

It hadn't made sense at first. Now you understood all the weird fragmented murmurings from Chanyeol and everything fell into place.

Why hadn't you noticed that before?

Maybe because he had always been a gentle giant, sweet to all the people around him and you hadn't particularly found his concern to be anything but platonic.

It was also because of his caring nature you quickly became besties with him even though he only joined the company one year ago, though he did tend to be overbearing at times.

You picked at your apples and chicken salad.

Apples.

Who was the one who told you about the apple crates? You knew it was somebody important. But neither name nor face registers. Why had you then found it strangely familiar when Kyungsoo mentioned it? As if it was something both of you shared?

You jabbed at the apples from frustration.

_______________

Kyungsoo clicked on the edited photos and sent them to you.

He wondered whether his being drawn to you was because he couldn't hear your thoughts. But there was strangely a moment when he felt... connected to you. Had he seen you somewhere before?

Why wasn't he able to hear you like he did with others?

Maybe... it's time to go to the much dreaded appointment at the hospital. Kyungsoo sighed and shut his laptop.

_____________

"Mr Do Kyungsoo?"

"Yes." Kyungsoo looked at the doctor's name tag. Dr Kim Joonmyun. "Dr Kim."

"So, how long did you say you had these symptoms for?"

"Five days. Today is the sixth."

"I'll help you do a scan as you proposed. Hearing things are very common, you know, even for people your age."

Dooby dum dum...

Kyungsoo wondered why the doctor had been humming songs ever since he read his file.

_____________

When Kyungsoo left the office, Dr Kim picked up the phone again.

"Yes... the other one is here today. The first phase is ending soon. You'll be here then? Alright."